SOMALIA: Nearly 9,500 Somalis dead in insurgency

by Abdi Sheikh
REUTERS

MOGADISHU: Fighting in Somalia has killed 838 people since June, local rights activists said on Tuesday, bringing the total to have died in an insurgency that began early last year to 9,474.

SRI LANKA: Passengers escape bus blast in Sri Lanka

By KRISHAN FRANCIS
The Associated Press

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A bomb blamed on the Tamil Tiger rebels ripped through a passenger bus in the heart of Sri Lanka’s capital Tuesday, but no one was seriously hurt because the conductor saw a suspicious package and evacuated the passengers in time, the military said.

Dr. Hector Weerasinghe of Colombo National Hospital said that four people were admitted for minor injuries.

AFGHANISTAN: UN says civilian deaths in Afghan war soaring; up 40 per cent so for in 2008

by The Canadian Press

KABUL — The United Nations says the number of Afghan civilians killed in insurgent attacks and air strikes by foreign troops has risen almost 40 per cent this year.

The UN says the Taliban has been responsible for 800 or some 55 per cent of the 1,445 Afghan civilian deaths reported through the end of August. U.S., NATO and Afghan forces are responsible for the other 645 civilian deaths, or 45 per cent.

IRAQ: Iraqi police say explosives-laden bicycle kills 2

by Hamid Ahmed
The Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — Police say a bicycle laden with explosives exploded at a busy market north of Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding 19.